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Dr. King's Legacy Is Being Lost

By the time of his death in 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had played a pivotal role in a movement for social justice that has since transformed the United States and caused him to be spoken of in the same breath as figures like Thomas Jefferson and Gandhi. The country lost Dr. King to an assassin's bullet. But we will lose him a second time unless his heirs find a way to rejuvenate the listless and down-at-the-heels King Center in Atlanta, which was set up to commemorate Dr. King's legacy while serving as a repository for his papers as well as for other crucial holdings related to civil rights.

Historians have been sounding the alarm for years about the deterioration of the papers, which are housed in a complex that lacks modern preservation services and requires far more upkeep than the King family has thus far been able to provide. The family, which is clearly unable to preserve the King papers for future generations, would do the country an enormous service by not selling them off to private collectors. Instead, the family should ramp up its conservation efforts in collaboration with the National Archives, the Library of Congress or one of the universities that have expressed interest.

The King Center itself is also badly in need of physical care and repair. The board, controlled by Dr. King's younger son, Dexter, recently announced that it was considering the sale of the King Center property to the National Park Service. But two of the King siblings have recently spoken out against the proposal. The park service, which says it has not been approached about a potential sale, would surely be able to care for the center, while expanding it into a legitimate civil rights memorial worthy of the name.

The next move belongs to the family. It can preserve an extraordinary legacy by yielding control -- or it can hold on tight and fritter that legacy away.